Midweek Observations - 9th-10th November 2010

There was an absurd but understandable amount of hype surrounding this week's Manchester derby at Eastlands. Sky were the main culprits with a number of flashy idents, various lives from the City and infinite interviews with any person who has ever seen Manchester on a map. Needless to say, I, like many others, were sucked in, and with good reason. This was supposed to be the biggest derby for years with the reds and the blues neck and neck in the league and more poignantly, both in the title race. United and City are both spilling over with talent and couple that with the extra incentive of wanting to beat your arch-rivals for bragging rights and such, I'm sure it wasn't too outrageous to expect a decent game packed full of goals, incident and talking points which would have sad little internet, homely looking bloggers yammering on for days.

Instead what we got was the football equivalent of this...


 
Actually, that's mightily unfair on tumbleweed.

Thanks to the negative approach of BOTH sides and a lack of desire to actually win the game, there was very little to actually 'observe' so I will move ever-so-quickly on. Let's hope Haye v Harrison is better, eh?
 
24 hours earlier, Sky Sports decided to televise the match between relegation fodder Stoke City and Birmingham City in a match that one couldn't get excited about beforehand even if Jessica Alba and Kelly Brook were to promise to wrestle naked in the centre circle at 15 minutes intervals. It was about as appealing as the bread before the starter before the main course.
 
As it turned out, this bread was the best part of the meal. The second half of said bread... er, match was one of the most entertaining 45 minute spells of the season, swinging back and fourth resulting in a 3-2 win for Tony Pulis' men. Interestingly enough, for all his pissing and moaning about referees this season, it was surprising (or not) to see Pulis noticeably less vocal about the possible handball by match winner Dean Whitehead before scoring the all important goal. People would be inclined to listen to his not altogether crazy suggestions to punish bad officiating if he wasn't such a hypocrite.
 
Earlier this week, much-maligned footballer Joey Barton actually surprised the world with something of a face turn by showing something resembling maturity. Well, about as much maturity Joey Barton can muster. The St. James' jailbird also seemingly offered advice to the apparent heir to his throne of thuggary Andy Carroll telling the striker to concentrate on his football. Barton feels that Carroll's recent on-pitch actions ought to be taken into consideration over his off field misdemeanours. Not 48 hours after these words of wisdom, Barton reverted to type by showing that his own on-pitch actions were just as reprehensible as what he does when he gets pissed off after receiving the wrong flavoured milkshake at a well known fast food establishment. After his unprovoked punch on Morton Gamst Pedersen, hopefully the authorities will throw the book at him. With any luck it will hit him in the eye because, you know, Karma is a bitch.
 
In the same game Jason Roberts scored the second winning goal for Blackburn Rovers in as many games. He must read this blog.


 
On a similar theme, Jermaine Beckford scored a stunner for Everton to salvage a draw against Bolton set out to prove that he is NOT as I previously suggested out of his depth in the Premier League and Aston Villa took my claim that they are boring and rammed them down my throat when they decided to participate in a rather exciting match with Blackpool. But like a petulant child with a spine made of reinforced steal, I am too stubborn to bend on these issues. Well done to both for their respective achievements but one swallow does not a summer make and all that. One goal wont convince me that Beckford isn't going to continue to maraud around Merseyside like a headless chicken with a broken Tom Tom while a 3-2 win against Blackpool reserves will not suddenly see Gerard Houllier's team starting to play expansive, high-tempo attacking football from now on.
 
Speaking of Blackpool, following his ludicrous threat to resign if he is punished over his team selection, is anyone else beginning to think that loveable Ian Holloway is fast becoming the miserable old giffer you encounter at bus stops and in grotty pubs that complains about everything but is completely oblivious to the fact that life couldn't actually be any better for him? Don't get me wrong, 'Ollie' is still what my Encyclopaedia of Great Football Clichés would refer to as a 'Breath of fresh air' and I would take his enthusiastic randomness over the monotonous generic nonsense spoken by most managers in the Premier League any day of the week but his threat to quit is childish, petty, vindictive and most importantly shows a lack of respect to his players who will be leaving in the lurch.
 
That said, he is right to be vexed at the authorities. The Premier League have already imposed the controversial home grown/25 man squad limit this season but if a manager isn't free to pick any first XI he chooses from that squad then what was the point? Farcical.
 
What would a discussion about Premier League football in modern times be without some sort of debate about tackling? Interestingly enough, for the second time in a matter of weeks it is perennial victims of leg-snap from seasons gone by Arsenal who are the perpetrators. In their 2-0 win at Wolves, Catalan Captain Cesc Fabregas found himself very lucky not to pick up what would have been his side’s FIFTH red card of the season after a late, reckless and totally unnecessary lunge on Stephen Ward. The Gunners' player and his boss were quick to say sorry afterwards but having been down this road already this season, you have to wonder if Arsenal players think it's ok to start tackling like animals so long as they say sorry afterwards? That's the kind of reasoning you'd expect from an infant thinking he has a justifiable reason to continuously whale on his little brother.
 
However, Fabregas wasn't the only guilty party in this game as 'Killer' Karl Henry was also lucky to escape punishment for an over the top challenge on Andrey Arshavin.



There was some naughtiness from many media outlets who have ignored this incident in their reporting of the game. Conspiracy theorists from the ever-paranoid but frightfully large gooner blogosphere would point to some kind of non-existent media bias against them, others particularly those from a certain area of the West Midlands would suggest that poor old Karl has had enough of a kicking (so to speak) from the media already this season so it is about time they chose to lay off him. The truth is, the Fabregas' apology and acceptance by Mick McCarthy made for a better 'story' so everyone just ran with that. Besides, the THUG FOOTBALLER COMMITS THUGGISH ACT headline has already been hogged by Joey Barton this week.


Results

Tuesday
Stoke City 3-2 Birmingham City
Tottenham 1-1 Sunderland

Wednesday
Aston Villa 3-2 Blackpool
Chelsea 1-0 Fulham
Everton 1-1 Bolton
Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United
Newcastle 1-2 Blackburn
West Ham 2-2 West Brom
Wigan 1-1 Liverpool
Wolves 0-2 Arsenal


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Nani State - Weekend Observations 30th October - 1st November 2010: Part One

First major talking point comes, not for the first time, from Old Trafford and another, let's say, favourable example of officiating from which the home side were able to benefit. For anyone that didn't see it, Nani scored United's decisive second goal in the 2-0 win over Tottenham after throwing himself to the ground rather easily, handling the ball deliberately before getting up and putting the ball in the back of the net when the Spurs goalkeeper justifiably believed his side should have been awarded a free kick by Mark Clattenburg.

A crack team of the finest minds on the planet couldn't work out why the Durham official allowed the goal to stand. Firstly, if the ref did not feel Nani deserved a penalty, the Portuguese should have been yellowed (yes, yellowed!) for what in football-speak is known as simulation (diving to you and me). If not, and Clattenburg deemed the tumble to be accidental, there can be no denying that Nani deliberately handled the ball while on the ground. Again, this could have been punished by a yellow card (although a rudimentary google search tells me that a card of either colour is not mandatory for this offence) but at the very least Spurs should have had a free kick. If Clattenburg didn't see the handball as some have suggested, the whole world saw his assistant set him straight. Why did he ignore this advice and gave the goal anyway?

The defence put forward is that Spurs were given the opportunity to play an advantage although I'm left scratching my head as to what 'advantage' there was to be gained when Gomes put the ball down with Nani standing near enough to ultimately score the debatable goal. In truth, Heurelho Gomes made the ultimate schoolboy error by not "playing to the whistle" something you are instructed to do from the very day you lace up your first pair of Gola football boots and regularly toe-punt the ball into no particular direction from a young age. However, was it really unreasonable of the Brazilian to think he deserved a free kick after Nani's deliberate handball? Clattenburg stood shrugging his shoulders. Since when has that been the signal to 'play on'? He should have made it clear that he was allowing an advantage.

As for the culprit himself, unsporting as it may have been, he had no option but to put the ball in the net. As Darren Fletcher so eloquently put, he would have been on the receiving end of a 'bollocking' had he not done so. Modern football is bereft of any sense of fair play that players will get continue to try and steal an advantage wherever they can until they are punished appropriately by the officials; something Clattenburg and his colleagues failed to do in such spectacular fashion on Saturday evening leaving 'Arry rightly peeved. It's also a shame for Nani himself as this moment overshadows what was other a very good performance from him.



There is a perception in the English game that the bigger sides, Manchester United in particular, often get the big decisions go their way and incidents like this do nothing to change that view. What also doesn't help is the fact that Clattenburg sent away all the Spurs players - booking Modric in the process - but allowed Rio Ferdinand to continue to mouth off next to him while conferring with the assistant.

But while Spurs were right to feel hard done by (let's be honest, this isn't
the first dodgy decision to go against them at Old Trafford in recent years... come to think of it, it's something of a regular occurrence) let's not forget they were still 1-0 down at the time and it was very late in the game. Of course, we will never know if they would have managed to grab an equaliser in that time but on the evidence of the game, it didn't look likely. Nani's goal was the difference only between either losing 1-0 or 2-0. Also, it would be unwise to ignore the fact that they themselves have been on the receiving end of favourable decisions so far this season against Stoke and Fulham respectively. C'est la vie. If I knew what people meant when they say 'Swings and Roundabouts' I'm sure I could apply it here too.

The away side had lots of possession but this ultimately failed to translate into any clear cut opportunities against a United side many would have argued beforehand that they had the beating of. Current crowd favourite Rafael van der Vaart has been considered something of a revelation at White Hart Lane thus far with his pant-wettingly impressive performances. Looking a bargain at a mere 8 million quid and already being prematurely touted as signing of the season, many would have thought he would provide to inspiration for a Tottenham team looking to win at Old Trafford for the first time since the Berlin Wall was still standing tall, Nelson Mandela was wearing stripped pyjamas and the B-52s were tearing up the charts inviting us into their "Love Shack" (1989 – simpler times). Unfortunately, 21 years of hurt for Spurs is set to continue for another season as the Dutchman failed to make any impact baring one shot that rattled the post in the first half. One of the most noticeable things about the former Real Madrid man's performance was his instance on trying to do everything by himself and failure to acknowledge better placed team mates. As good as he appears to be, he doesn't strike me as much of a 'team player'. 'Arry gives him license to do as he pleases and while it works against smaller sides, he needs to be less selfish against the better teams if he is to pose the kind of threat expected of him.



Mrs. van der Vaart. Why? WHY NOT!?!?


That's not to say that Tottenham are, or need to be, solely dependant on one player to pull their proverbial strings. One team that may have become guilty of this are United's affluent cross-town neighbours City whose attack, sans Carlos Tevez, can only be described as flaccid. I warned a couple of weeks ago about the need for greater contribution from the rest of Mancini's Millionaires and for all their talent, this hasn't transpired in their two most recent Premier League games culminating in Saturday's shock 2-1 loss against a Wolves side who, for my money,are getting relegated this season.

Dusting off the Big Book o' Clichés, I am compelled to use the expression that a week can be a long time in football. Last Saturday people were talking about Man City being the only team capable of challenging Chelsea. Two defeats later and the same people are now questioning whether Roberto Mancini is up to the job and with rumours of internal conflicts also continuing to surface, it just makes the whole bizarre situation at the club even more surreal. For me, it's damn near impossible to comprehend that a squad bloated with that much talent wont find a way of coping without Tevez, however long the Argentinean is out for. If they manage to secure victory in the forthcoming Manchester derby in a few weeks, those people claiming that the club is in 'crisis' will be backtracking once more.

That said, they now look some way off the Chelsea side they managed to beat a few weeks back. The Blues managed a late 2-1 win against a spirited Blackburn side that actually looked as though they set out to play a game of football rather than their own unique brand of rugby league that Sam Allardyce usually sends them out to pla... oh, can't say that now, can I? Anywho, with the game locked at 1-all in the second half, Rovers had their chances to win it and by right should have inflicted the West Londoners second defeat of the season right there at Ewood Park. Jason Roberts was undoubtedly guilty of squandering the best of these chances, scuffing wide a 1 on 1 when it would have been easier to score... blindfolded! With that kind of finishing, it's no surprise that Roberts has averaged less than one goal every FIVE appearances for Blackburn to date.

Chelsea eventually won the game with a late Blanislav Ivanovic header and remain a fairly comfortable 5 points ahead of the chasing pack. In second place are Arsenal who themselves scrambled an 88th minute Alex Song winner against bottom club West Ham in a game where The Gunners somehow managed to look fairly average in despite damn near total domination of possession. Cesc Fabregas limped around with an achy-breaky hamstring which, going on the usual recovery time of injured Arsenal players, could yet rule him out of some important fixtures once more over the coming weeks. When he's on the pitch and not playing well, it's worrying to see how much this transmits to every other player in Red and White and this was no more evident than on Saturday. Still, 3 points iz 3 points, innit? The Hammers wouldn't have expected much from the game but would also not have been too happy to see wins for fellow relegation candidates Wolves and Liverpool...

Part Two to follow...